1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to equipment and process for cutting food products, such as coring, sectioning & dicing, etc., thereby reducing the size of the product.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of equipment are known for slicing, shredding and granulating food products such as vegetables, fruits and meat products. For slicing root vegetables into thin slices, such as when slicing potatoes to make potato chips, a widely-used machine is commercially available from the assignee of the present invention under the name Urschel Model CC. The Model CC relies on centrifugal forces to maintain the product engaged with a cutting head. Other known machines include those that deliver food products on a horizontal conveyor to a vertically-oriented cutting wheel, and those that rely on products vertically stacked within a feed tube to maintain contact with a horizontal cutting wheel. An example of a cutting apparatus that employs gravity to cause food products to pass through a cutting wheel is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,902 to Gangi. More particular, Gangi discloses an apparatus adapted to section fruit that has been cored, such that the product has a core hole that passes through the center of the product. Proper orientation of the product during sectioning relies on an inner guide shaft to be received in the core hole of a product as the product drops down through an annular-shaped passage defined by and between the inner guide and an outer guide that circumscribes the inner guide. The product engages multiple vertical rotary cutting blades during its fall to produce a sectioned product.